Health insurance gender gap persists: report

(Crain's) — In the health insurance industry, many women pay more than men for the same health coverage, according to a report.

The New York Times writes that the Affordable Care Act will prohibit “gender rating” starting in 2014, but so far, only 14 states have taken steps to voluntarily ban or limit the practice in the individual insurance market. In states that have not banned gender rating, including Illinois, more than 90 percent of the best-selling health plans charge women more than their male counterparts.

Among the examples cited by the Times: In Chicago, a 30-year-old woman pays $375 a month for a popular Blue Cross Blue Shield plan, nearly a third more than a man of the same age pays for the same plan.

The disparity, insurers say, is not due to maternity care, which carries an additional charge under most plans, but instead exists because women between the ages of 19 and 55 are more likely to visit doctors, take prescription drugs and incur other medical expenses — a claim the National Women's Law Center calls “highly questionable,” the newspaper reported.